EDITORIAL: Balanced verdict in Manning case

Published: Monday, August 5, 2013 at 07:49 PM.

Army Pfc. Bradley Manning broke the law. There’s really no question about that particular aspect of his releasing classified documents to Wikileaks.

But in acquitting Manning of the most serious charge — that of aiding the enemy — military judge Col. Denise Lind brings common sense, perspective and proportion to the case.

Lind found reasonable middle ground by rightly ruling Manning guilty of several violations of the Espionage Act. After all, while Manning admitted to passing the documents to the anti-secrecy organization, it was never clear that his actions harmed national security in the way the Obama administration contended.

The Espionage Act, which the Obama administration is also using to prosecute leakers in civilian court, punishes the transmission of defense information to unauthorized persons if the possessor of the information has reason to believe that it would injure this country or aid a foreign nation. Before his court-martial, Manning had pleaded guilty to lesser charges of mishandling classified information that could subject him to 20 years in prison. Manning’s sentence for his Espionage Act charges is yet to be determined, but he potentially faces decades in prison.

Manning, 25, is seen in some circles as a courageous whistleblower who soured on the Iraq war and sought to expose government wrongdoing. But he’s far from a hero. While Manning has been compared to 1960s Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg, the parallel is far from clear cut.

Ellsberg exposed years of lying by the government about the war in Vietnam and only after carefully analyzing the documents, calculating the potential outcomes and turning himself in to face trial. As it stands for Manning, he is only slightly more noble than National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, who fled the country and just Thursday was granted asylum in Russia, of all places.

Manning downloaded hundreds of thousands of documents — far too many for careful inspection prior to their release to Wikileaks.

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Army Pfc. Bradley Manning broke the law. There’s really no question about that particular aspect of his releasing classified documents to Wikileaks.

But in acquitting Manning of the most serious charge — that of aiding the enemy — military judge Col. Denise Lind brings common sense, perspective and proportion to the case.

Lind found reasonable middle ground by rightly ruling Manning guilty of several violations of the Espionage Act. After all, while Manning admitted to passing the documents to the anti-secrecy organization, it was never clear that his actions harmed national security in the way the Obama administration contended.

The Espionage Act, which the Obama administration is also using to prosecute leakers in civilian court, punishes the transmission of defense information to unauthorized persons if the possessor of the information has reason to believe that it would injure this country or aid a foreign nation. Before his court-martial, Manning had pleaded guilty to lesser charges of mishandling classified information that could subject him to 20 years in prison. Manning’s sentence for his Espionage Act charges is yet to be determined, but he potentially faces decades in prison.

Manning, 25, is seen in some circles as a courageous whistleblower who soured on the Iraq war and sought to expose government wrongdoing. But he’s far from a hero. While Manning has been compared to 1960s Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg, the parallel is far from clear cut.

Ellsberg exposed years of lying by the government about the war in Vietnam and only after carefully analyzing the documents, calculating the potential outcomes and turning himself in to face trial. As it stands for Manning, he is only slightly more noble than National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, who fled the country and just Thursday was granted asylum in Russia, of all places.

Manning downloaded hundreds of thousands of documents — far too many for careful inspection prior to their release to Wikileaks.